A Study On The Cultural Identification And Identity Confirmation Of Zhang Chengzhi’ Works

Zhang Chengzhi is an important writer in Chinese contemporary literature. In1978, he got success for the short story "why Herd-man sings about mother". After that, his novels like" Black horse"," North River"," King Ranch ", and " History of soul " etc. received striking success as well. Besides Novels, he is also involved in poetry, his prose anthologies such as " Saddle and Pen ","Deserted Hero Road" and "The Clear Spirit" are all typical representatives of his works. In most of his novels and prose, there is a unique spirit with cultural identity, which is related to the history and real life of the nomadic peoples in North China and Hui people. These works express his caring about motherland, which reflecting his personal identification with Grassland culture, Islamic culture and Chinese culture, and also his positive searching and confirming of his identity of Mongolian, Muslim and Chinese people. Studying on the novels and prose of Zhang Chengzhi, this paper cares about the issue of cultural connotation and identity confirmation. By meticulously studying on the multiple cultural connotation of Zhang’s works, this paper analyzes the writer’s self-identity seeking process, probes into the writer’s composing attitude and creating pursuit, discusses the writer’s composing features thoroughly and systematically, and reveals his mental anxiety under the influence of modernization.This paper consists of five chapters:three chapters in its main body with an introduction chapter and a conclusion chapter.The introduction chapter, with a briefly introduction of Zhang Chengzhi and his literary works, makes a presentation and analyzation of the current research situation on Zhang Chengzhi, explains the reason of selecting the topic, and displays the research content, composing arrangement and research method of this paper.The chapter1:This part analyzes Zhang’s Grassland novels with the support of the theory of cultural identification and the identity confirmation. Combining with Zhang’s living experience in Inner Mongolia, it discusses the viewpoints and inner reasons of the confirmation of the grassland culture and the identity of Mongol from Zhang’s creation and even points out his anxiety about the loss of the grassland culture. The chapter2:Combining with Zhang’s growing experience and spirit situation, this part analyzes the text expression of the native national culture, discusses Zhang’s cognitive process from little understanding of Islamic culture to conscious confirmation, elaborates the impact of Islamic culture to Zhang who recognizes and adheres to the Muslim identity, and then analyze his opinion of the contradiction between the Muslims faith and survival in his works.The chapter3:From the oversea experience of Zhang, this part analyzes the special emotion experience of Zhang, discusses his deep understanding and appreciating of Chinese culture as a Chinese to emphasize his concern on motherland under the impact of the modern reality.The last chapter:To summarize the paper, this part concludes the multicultural experience and the multiple identities which reflected by Zhang Chengzhi’s works and points out the plentiful content and significance in his creations.